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Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

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Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#61

Post by coldtea »

publicdebates wrote: post #16
spacechild1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is indeed a very technical and nerdy person. For example, he was an early adopter of the SuperCollider audio programming language. Fun trivia: he was trolling the SuperCollider mailing list under the alias "eric hard jams" which is an anagram of Richard [D.] James. Some of his messages were truely horrendous and he got kicked out eventually. He is quite a character...

Was it confirmed that eric hard jams was actually him? How strange it is that we so easily forgive bad behavior from people we love.

>How strange it is that we so easily forgive bad behavior from people we love.

That's part of what loving someone means. It's easy to love someone convenient who never does anything to bother or hurt you.

Besides, he was trolling. It's not like it's a big deal. If you were on a mailing list or usenet group or forum in the 80s and 90s everybody did that, and few if any had an issue with it, we could take it!

We not only forgive but tolerate 100000x worse stuff everyday that directly fucks our lives that we could prioritize not tolerating.

Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#62

Post by coldtea »

_alaya wrote: post #21
publicdebates wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it confirmed that eric hard jams was actually him? How strange it is that we so easily forgive bad behavior from people we love.

It’s strange but common. I love the music of Miles Davis and consider him a genius. I also give him a pretty poor review in terms of his behavior as a human being. People are complex.

There's also that fact that Miles Davis doesn't get to review our own behavior as human beings. He might not have liked us as his audience either. His behavior is publicized, and ours (whether it is) is not.

Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#63

Post by coldtea »

shimman wrote: post #29
mft_ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not in vogue these days, but rather than forgiving, we can compartmentalise and rationalise. Being a bad person in one domain doesn't mean that someone can't generate value in another.

Why are you putting "value" above human decency? Maybe you shouldn't be considered to generate any "value" if you put misery on others, how can any "value" make up for the direct suffering? There are plenty people just the same, with the same capabilities without the quality of being a tarpit of suck.

>Why are you putting "value" above human decency?

Because human decency is often overrated and hard usable value is often underrated.

If we removed the value (changes, inventions, artworks, products, etc) made by people which were lacking in "human decency" in this or that aspect, billions would be poorer, sicker, die sooner, and have much worse cultures.

>There are plenty people just the same, with the same capabilities without the quality of being a tarpit of suck.

Understanding is a great component of human decency too, as is not being a sanctimonious hollier-than-thou type. For example, not labelling someone who "wrote something mean in a forum" as "a tarpit of suck", as if that defines them totally, or as if the persons making such statements shit doesn't smell.

Plus "plenty people just the same, with the same capabilities", really? As if the output of an artist is interchangeable with that of another, so that we can just discard those that have done such grave offenses as "being rude on a forum" and just listen to another?

Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#64

Post by jacquesm »

tnias23 wrote: post #35
publicdebates wrote: post #14

Tangential: "Aisatsana - Aphex Twin - Barbican, London 10th October 2012. It's a bit dark so it's probably difficult to tell but that's a grand piano being swung back and forth across the stage like a pendulum." "Yeah, it's written for my wife. When I first did that, I did this installation-y art thing at the Barbican with a remote orchestra. [The song] was made on my Disklavier [controlled piano], which was swung fr…

I thought he was just bullshitting again until I watched that video

Pure genius.

Now of course we have to know what the rotary speaker equivalent of a grand piano sounds like... anybody have a couple of very large bearings lying around?

Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#65

Post by topocite »

shimman wrote: post #29
mft_ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not in vogue these days, but rather than forgiving, we can compartmentalise and rationalise. Being a bad person in one domain doesn't mean that someone can't generate value in another.

Why are you putting "value" above human decency? Maybe you shouldn't be considered to generate any "value" if you put misery on others, how can any "value" make up for the direct suffering? There are plenty people just the same, with the same capabilities without the quality of being a tarpit of suck.

I know I have made many mistakes in my life, especially as a dumb kid.

We can't all be on your level of moral perfection.

Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#66

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

publicdebates wrote: post #14

Tangential: "Aisatsana - Aphex Twin - Barbican, London 10th October 2012. It's a bit dark so it's probably difficult to tell but that's a grand piano being swung back and forth across the stage like a pendulum." "Yeah, it's written for my wife. When I first did that, I did this installation-y art thing at the Barbican with a remote orchestra. [The song] was made on my Disklavier [controlled piano], which was swung fr…

Academic electroacoustic music uses large speaker arrays to place sounds in different locations, and "flying pianos" is a standard in-joke. Because you can indeed make a piano sound fly around the room, with or without doppler effects, to taste.

Also, this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbnb09xAQR8

Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#67

Post by topocite »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #18
spacechild1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is indeed a very technical and nerdy person. For example, he was an early adopter of the SuperCollider audio programming language. Fun trivia: he was trolling the SuperCollider mailing list under the alias "eric hard jams" which is an anagram of Richard [D.] James. Some of his messages were truely horrendous and he got kicked out eventually. He is quite a character...

Has anyone used SuperCollider or computer music framework to make anything resembling a pop song? Look at how easily a producer can make a pop song in Ableton https://youtube.com/watch?v=F5CPQ8LU36w

Ableton is like the modern day guitar.

SuperCollider and music programming languages are like the modern day bass clarinet.

There isn't much bass clarinet in modern pop music either. Part of what defines pop music is the familiarity of the sound and popular expectation of what music is supposed to be.

Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#68

Post by isoprophlex »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #7

The depth of knowledge of Richard James surprises me every time I come across articles about him. No wonder Aphex Twin's music stands out the way it does. He's always a fair way ahead of the curve.

> It’s very simple, but do you want your music to be based on an international standard or on what you think sounds right to you? [...] I’m very glad I trusted my instincts. Listening to that other voice is THE most important thing in creativity, whether you’re an engineer or a musician.

To me, RDJs music always stood out as having uncanny, unique melodies and harmonies. As a teenager I fantasized about him being some sort of benevolent alien music shaman, beaming melodies onto our planet.

Stuff on SAW II where you can't figure out if you're hearing single notes or mutating chords and everything is near-synaesthetic bliss. The wistful otherness of 'Italic Eyeball'. Whatever 'fingerbib', ICBYD, and things on Melodies from Mars are doing was very formative to my 16 year old brain.

It's clear that whatever he does, he channels some unique creative juices.

Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#69

Post by topocite »

tea_cult_1 wrote: post #26
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #7

The depth of knowledge of Richard James surprises me every time I come across articles about him. No wonder Aphex Twin's music stands out the way it does. He's always a fair way ahead of the curve.

A different opinion about their music is that it all seems rather ostentatious in an aural sense, and leaves a doubt if some of the praise being heaped on it is 'perfomative'.

People would say the same thing about Glass or Reich. People would say the same thing about Messiaen or Ligeti. People would say the same thing about Schoenberg or Webern.

If your expectation of good food is In-N-Out Burger, you might think praise of a three star Michelin restaurant is performative too.

I am not even much a fan of Richard but he is absolutely one of the greatest musical geniuses of the past 50 years bar none.

Avril 14th is my favorite. Clearly Satie influenced but maybe even a little sweeter than Satie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxTdTaNIUxo

Also consider Satie himself is exactly the type of musician people would have said praising is performative at the time. He wasn't taken seriously as a real musician much at all in his life.

Re: Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)

#70

Post by [deleted] »

esperent wrote: post #34
publicdebates wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it confirmed that eric hard jams was actually him? How strange it is that we so easily forgive bad behavior from people we love.

I mean, I haven't even seen any of the messages. Just a one sentence accusation and no proof that it was actually him. Jumping to the decision that there's anything to forgive would be weird based on this. Even if it was true, who cares? I like the guy's music, it's had a strong influence on me at various times in my life. But I have never had a strong opinion of whether I like him , and I still don't. Why would I?

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